In the merchandising arts the importance of demographic and geographic information acquired from trade coupons is well understood. There is also a problem of security and protection against improper use of trade coupons. For example, instances are known in which large numbers of coupons are fraudulently delivered to the issuer for reimbursement of the face value of the coupons without the sale of the corresponding merchandise having been made.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,108,824 to Fischer, et al, Oct. 29, 1963 for Periodical Containing Coupons and Method of Processing Thereof describes coupons coded for price and for other information. After the coupons have been redeemed a code reading machine reads the codes from the redeemed, coupons and derives demographic or geographic information, or both.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,067 to Schechter, June 27, 1978 for Printed Coupon Folder (a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,964) describes a direct mail promotional package of coupons which may be imprinted with the universal product code for reading by scanner to assure that the purchaser is entitled to the credit provided by the coupon, and that the coupon credit is indeed for a product purchased.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,470 to Wilson, Oct. 12, 1965, describes a coded coupon carrying various information about the product, expiration date of the coupon, and other information. The coupon is coded along two areas and employs a self-checking type of coding. The coupon coding provides parity checking and regeneration codes, as well as data about manufacturer, product, and counterfeit checking code.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,534 to Fishkin, et al, May 22, 1973, for "Dual Document", describes a coupon having a middle section and two separable end sections. U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,149 to Crepeau, et al, Feb. 13, 1979, for Display System describes a code reader for reading product codes, a computer for processing the coded data, and display units for serially displaying data withdrawn from computer storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,148 to Whitney, Dec. 21, 1982, describes a system for attaching a label with the universal product code to a produc after weighing, entry of data, and withdrawal of information from a computer which analyzes the data and transmits the data to a label printer for printing price information, so that the customer can read the price imprinted on the label.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,537 to Snow, June 7, 1977 for Product Processing System with Price Printer describes a printer controlled in response to product identifying codes, such as the universal product (bar) code, to print on the product label the price information drawn from a computer memory and computed in the computer.